later, officer fred kaplan with his book. -- author. . host: live coverage for both

president obama's town hall meetings here on c-span. we're live beginning at 11:00 eastern time, and funeral services held later this morning for eunice kennedy shriver. live coverage on c-span2. our focus for much of this first hour is on this health care campaign. the numbers on your screen, 202- 737-0001 for republicans. 202-737-0002 for democrats. we also have a line for independents, and send us a tweed. inside "usa today" the health- care battle bubbling over in town hall forums across the nation this month, shifting to tv screens. if you go to the website politico.com, a $12 million edged campaign committee latest wave of ads in support of the president's plan.

mike allen joins us. can you explain what this is all about. guest: the $12 million buy, which is the first of tens of millions of dollars of money going out in support of the president's plant is an effort by white house allies to counter all the great coverage we have been seeing on c-span and elsewhere of these raucous town halls. as you know, this is the reversal of the landscape that president clinton faced back in 1993 when the air waves were very much dominated by the opposition. >> this is coming -- host: this is coming at the same time as the net routes meeting in michigan, and "usa to the" is pinning it $57 million in health-care advertising.

guest: it is like a presidential campaign if you are in ohio you will see more of the campaign then you are going to see if you are in utah. same thing with health care. if you are in nebraska, montana , where mount -- where max baucus is from, iowa where chuck grassley is from. you are going to see these ads playing out much more. that is why the coverage on c- span is so great on this issue, including the videos that you have been getting from town halls. >host: let me ask you about senator baucus. he will be in attendance, although he will not be speaking at the town hall meeting in montana, and there's also a piece this morning in "the washinton post," how the deficit is playing in all this. senator baucus's role in the health-care debate, and also

the deficit impact on the debate. guest: senator baucus is one of the keys to having any sort of a deal that will have republicans on board. if he can work with top republicans, senator grassley has said, as viewers know, the he will not make it one man deal. he agrees to a deal, it will be one that republicans can agree to. that is why republicans are watching so closely what will come out of german baucus' -- of chairman baucus' committee. it might be a little rowdier, a little exciting over the last president's town hall, where he was criticized over possibly stacking the deck with questioners committee president saying he did not want to think that he had a bunch of plants here.

the white house gave up the tickets to two town halls, at two city halls, first-come, first served. there is much more of a chance that the president will get tough questions, and the president is very skillful at answering these, so he probably would be better off if he looked like he answered some tough questions. i think he will -- look for him to intered skeptics right up front. host: mike allen at thepolitico.com. released late yesterday -- let's take a look. >> what this health insurance reform mean for you? it means putting health care decisions in the hands of you and your doctor. it means lower costs, a cap on how to pocket expenses, tough new rules to cut waste and red

tape, and focus on preventing illness before it strikes. so what does health insurance reform really mean? quality, affordable care you can count on. >> washington's latest health reform idea, 8 $1 trillion health plan with a government auction with a big tax increases even on health benefits. and the federal deficit, the nonpartisan congressional budget office says the deficit will grow to one to $39 billion. inflated taxes, swelling deficits, and expanding government control of your health. tell congress lets slow down and reform health care the right way. host: mike allen, you have been in a lot of campaigns and how effective is this approach? guest: well, we are going to seep into the advertising campaign is interesting because -- well, we are going to see. the advertising campaign is interesting. this is all about building

pressure on the member senators who will be able to determine what is going on in the first ad that we played there, that is the one that is the opening wave, $12 million campaign. that is designed to make people feel like health reform is something that will then a set a big problem for the white house has been with both listened -- middle-class people that have health insurance and with seniors, they have begun to buy the idea that there is only a downside risk and health reform. that is a little bit how the polls that we see come here on c-span we see that people hate congress but like their congressman. people think that there is a problem with the health-care system that people like their own health care. the first ad is designed to provide reassurance to people because the initial reporting

that we are doing for members and senators back home indicates they are being a little rattled or spooked by what we are seeing here on the tv screens and that is one of the reasons that the white house is so anxious that to have republicans on board, to get a deal with senator grassley of ohio, because if this turns out to be unpopular, they want to have republicans, not just democrats alone at. the feeling among democrats i talked to is that in the next midterm congressional election, this is a storied pattern of party power, the incoming president taking hits and that is likely to hold. but, steve, they think that will be even worse if democrats are alone on a health-care bill. host: you mentioned charles grassley of ohio, and there is a page in "the washington times" of his town hall meetings being relatively sober, not a whole

lot of shouting back and forth. guest: they have been sober, but if you look at his comments, you can see a kind of bearish threat in them, talking about how he is being pushed away from the table, that the white house might be headed toward a democrats-only deal. what is it -- what is a little hard to interpret is how much is playing to a home state crowd and how much of it is real white house disenchantment. the senate finance committee, that gang of six is going to be working on this. next week should be another busy week on health care. wednesday, 5:00 p.m. eastern, the president is holding a conference call to try to make the point why health reform should be important to their

congregations, to their members. there is a real grassroots organizing effort going along with it. the denominations are encouraging congregations told listening sessions, and members to hold conversations in their home, have discussions afterward, invite the press. this is to reassure people who might be seen the end of life stories and abortion stories and get them to focus on the endgame of changing our health-care system. host: we are going to hear from you for the rest of the hour as we show you some of these latest ads this morning, the story inside "usa today." one other part of the story is the peace front page of "the new york times," in the opinion piece of paul reubkrugman, callg

at "republican death trip." and msnbc come on fox, and on the blogosphere. guest: that is a great particle, and what they find is not that is a great article, and what they find is that -- a conservative magazine, "the american spectator," and "the washington times," and most decisively from an editorial writer from "the wall street journal," former governor betsy mccall way. her comments have been very, very, very widely passed around among conservatives. yesterday i was listening to sean hannity. he was having her on as his guest to talk about how in the health-care bill she was on as the bipartisan witness for the

bill. that is why you have some misinformation being posted around, and i forgot where i read this, but some of your viewers will remember one example of that misinformation is that in the town halls you keep hearing people listening to talk radio, talking about section 29. it turns out there is no section 29 of the bill. they also start -- there is a little game of telephone going on. host: mike allen, his piece this morning in thepolitico.com. we want to hear from you, as mike allen indicated in "usa today" reporting, the focus of the latest airwave campaign in 21 states on health care. we begin with alberta, on the democrats' line. good morning, welcome to "washington journal." caller: good morning.

host: please go ahead. caller: my concern is that there are many doctors out there who know the scam, know how to get super rich, and why are they doing that? to become rich. when the people themselves are not getting the complete health -- we are not getting the health care that we deserve when these doctors are trying to get rich. i think it is basically not the money going in the right direction. there are too many getting too much money for the wrong reasons. host: let me go back to paul krugman, "republican death trip," in "the new york times." "president obama is having the same kind of opposition that president clinton had to deal with, and a rage right that denies the legitimacy of his presidency. this opposition cannot be

appeased. some pundits claim that mr. obama has polarized the country by falling too liberal agenda, but the truth is that the attacks on the president had no relationship to anything he is actually doing or proposing. one other point again on this so-called death panel rumors that "the new york times" is reporting, "maulana go some of the most enthusiastic peddlers of the euthanasia smear, including new gingrich, the former speaker of the house, and sarah palin herself, were all for advanced directives for medical care in the event that you are incapacitated or comatose. that is exactly what was being proposed and has now in the face of all hysteria been dropped from the bill." are line -- our line for independents, danny. caller: everything has been so polarized as of late. this is our country. i mean, yeah, i know is medical

and everything like that, but this bill has not even been proposed yet. there is nothing finish, nothing on paper, and yet everybody is all up in arms. it is my hope that this country can just come together. we all have our differences, but maybe we will see the light and people will remember that we are all countrymen, we belong to the same country, and we can see it through. it is ok to have the debate and talk about it, and not -- but do not let this debate turn your anger to your neighbor. the only reason why we cannot have that is that some guy in an office says, hey, if we have a medical system that competes with the one that is going, you know, it will take all our money and not provide anything. it seems to me like a lose-lose situation either way.

host: thank you for your call. another opinion piece by charles krauthammer, "be great prevention method." "in the 48 hours of june 15 and june 16, president obama lost the health care debate. first a letter from the budget of -- the congressional budget office to senator kennedy reported that his health committee's reform bill would add $one trillion in debt over the next decade. then the cbo reported that the bill would add 1.6 trillion dollars. desperation time -- what do you do? sprinkle fairy dust on every health care plan." one point he says is that this is how look this morning from the "new york post." "this does not mean that we should not be preventing illnesses, but in medicine, as in life, there is no free lunch.

the idea that prevention is somehow out indefinitely different from treatment, that treatment increases costs and prevention lowers them, is simply nonsense." kevin joins us from grosse pointe, michigan. good morning. caller: good morning. as a republican, you know, i am getting a little disappointed. i like a good fight like anyone else over issues especially, but the way things seem now -- hello? host: you are breaking up. the head, kevin. caller: we do not have a bill. we are spending money. what are we spending so much money for? i do not think anybody is getting anything out of this debate right now except maybe

rush limbaugh and sean hannity. they make millions of dollars a week, you know, just keeping this disaster going, this division. but actually, i am educated as well as a lot of people out here listening. and when i look for a bill, what is my money going for? i want it to be a republican bill versus a democratic bill, and discuss the issues rather than just making up -- i do not know. host: are you getting -- are you paying attention to all the back and forth from "hardball" to cnn to glenn beck? caller: yes, but i do not appreciate it because i do not know what bill they are talking about. we have three different bills, and so far as a republican i see

that we do not have a bill. so what are we talking about? host: the three bills on the house side are -with the house ways and means, on the senate side is the health, education, and labor committee. there is no final bill yet until sometime in the fall. the president indicating that that vote could come in november or even into december. the front page of "the washington times," "crowds of all iowans keep their cool in health care town hall. maybe it is the form of sensibility or the state's longstanding caucus tradition, but for whatever reason iowans turned out in droves."

trenton, new jersey, good morning. caller: good morning. i have three questions. one, the first one -- could we remember noah building the art? there was so much people not wanting the rain to fall. it takes just one person to make a big problem, like, take for instance, i may take transportation and go into the public, and do you know how much people that one person can affect? no, we need some people like --

the doctor i am watching the news, i see a doctor, one is republican and one is democrat. who can we trust? we cannot understand this situation because two doctors -- one of republican, won his democrat, and we do not know which one of them to believe. host: thank you for the call. opinion of byron york inside the "washington examiner." "gop think the unthinkable: victory in 2010." "is a possibility many republicans speak only in whispers and democrats are just now beginning to face. after passionate and contentious fight over health care, the environment, and taxes, could democrats lose really big in elections? democrats control 256 seats, republicans 178. 40 seats would have to change

hands for republicans to take charge. on the other hand, 52 seats turned over when the gop won the house in 1994. some republicans were worried about becoming a permanent minority party. although they may not win in 2010, they feel they are back and gave." we are showing you some of the latest ads in the health-care campaign being put forth by a number of business groups, including the democratic national committee. here is one of their health care-related spot. >> my son has cerebral palsy and epilepsy. >> when i lost my job, i lost my health insurance, to. >> my insurance company would not fully cover me when i got sick. >> my father did not have health care. >> my husband's health care covered us until he got laid off. >> it is time. >> it is time. >> it is time for health care reform.

host: net from the dnc. next is bruce from wilmington, ohio. what do you make of all these ads and the debate over health care? caller: well, i think that -- i am one of the 2000 that got laid off by dhl, and we need health care in america. one of the people who really got the people have asked me, what was it like? i tell people that barack obama, the most thing that i will say is driving him is that he watched his white mother died because of inefficiency in health care in america. i think that is the number one driving force, that he does not want to see that happen to americans, white and black, across the board. and he is going to fight with everything he has got because he watched it. he does not have his mother anymore, he does not have his father anymore, and i think he wants people like me who get

laid off, 10,000 of us, and know that we need health care in america. thank god for people like sharon brower, the senator who is working hard -- like sherrod brown, the senator who is working hard on behalf of the american people. i worked 45 years of my life and got laid off. people have no idea what it is like to be laid off in america if you have never been laid off. we need this, and i thank god for barack obama, sherrod brown, in the people who are fighting for our rights to get health care. host: you alluded to something that there was a time back into the night-back in 2008 -- back in 2008, so what was your reaction -- what was your interaction with him and what were your circumstances? caller: we met with barack obama because we could not get

national care. we pleaded with him to look into what was happening with the potential layoff of 10,000 people, and he was the first one that went to bat for ohio and let the world know about it. i thank god for john mccain, i mean, he is one of the greatest senators, one of the greatest humans i have ever had the opportunity of meeting i just felt that barack obama has a plan, and i just felt like four americans it was better than john mccain. i am still the republican, i still love john mccain. as a black man, i still love john mccain because of what he has done for america and for my freedom, but i just think that barack obama has what americans need. he was the most sensitive to us in ohio. host: bruce, thank you, i appreciate the call. we appreciate your checking in with us again. the president traveling to

bozeman, montana. the town hall meeting will get underway and we will be covering it. there is a piece in relation to the president's trip out west and in view that we did with doug brinkley. we will talk about that later on. the editorial page in "the washington times," "the administration promised that whatever industry first reached an agreement over a government health care would get a rock- solid deal. pharmaceutical companies have agreed to reduce drug prices for 80 billion that -- by $80 billion in exchange for a promise that medicare will not be allowed to negotiate drug prices further. it is disturbing that companies were forced to lower drug prices. they essentially were threatened with destruction to government forced lower prices that they did not agree to help pay for new government programs that is

chicago style politics at its roughest. so much for mr. obama's promise of transparency." next call, good morning. caller: good morning. i am going to try not to ramble. i just wish americans would wake up and stop believing the rhetoric. i have health insurance, i have had it since i was an adult. it is ludicrous for me to say that i am happy with my health insurance. i have some medical issues, and i have had some special tests done. the insurance company refused to allow me to have those tests because they felt that a different test would be more appropriate, so i had a different test done and based on the results of that test, it was decided that the tests that my doctor originally wanted me to

have was actually needed. add that particular time, the insurance company agreed -- at that in your time, the insurance company agreed to have that particular test done. i had to pay co-payments for both of those tests when the doctor made it very clear that the primary test that the insurance company approved -- did not approve was it when i needed, but my insurance company refused. so when i hear the town hall saying that the government is going to determine what type of coverage we get or what type of tests we have, the insurance companies are basically determining that right now. host: i will stop you on that point. thank you for that call from virginia. a reaction to paul krugman's ps this morning, this week. "advance directives and living

wills are a personal choice and congress should not mandate. "town halls to hostile for some." the democrat from illinois is -- the headline says some lawmakers are looking for funding to any groups committee to contentious health care debate, forcing some congress members to rethink in august tradition -- town hall style meetings. eager to avoid the kind of shopping and in some cases shoving confrontations that have turned the health-care debate into a cable television youtube sensation, some lawmakers are opting out of that free-wheeling forum. all these ads are available on our website, c-span.org. we will also show you how to complete some of your own comments. >> $22,750. in england, health officials

decided that is how much six months of life is worth. under their socialized system, if your medical care costs more, you are out of luck. that is wrong for america. decisions should be made by patients and doctors, not politicians and bureaucrats. tell your members of congress to oppose government-run health care. host: if you are attending or have attended some of the town hall meetings, we want to hear from you. you can upload your comments, or if you take a small camera to your meetings and what to share them with us, you can do so by going to c-span.org. we have had it -- we have set up what we call the health care hub. to get more information on the latest, you can also watch many of the town hall meetings we have covered, and these that we have been showing you this morning, all available on the site. michael is joining us from kill devil hills, north carolina. good morning. caller: good morning and thank

you for c-span. on the health care thing, a couple of your callers said about we really do not have a bill, which we do not, and everybody is tearing it down. i was thinking it is a larger issue, and i wish the president would present it in a matter that is really the bottom line and the pain ends -- in a manner that is really the bottom line. pain and suffering for profit is really the issue. with capitalism, we make money from a lot of things, but do we need to make money off the things that we do? i am a liver transplant recipient. caller: in 2000. it was a $650,000 surgery. host: how are you feeling today? caller: i have a lot of issues. i have reached my peak. i am coming out of it already. i am able to just barely make

it. host: you sound young, too, by the way. how old are you? caller: i am 57. host: and you had it when you were 47? caller: yeah, thanksgiving day 2000. i have spent a lot of money out of pocket for march until july 29, my last prescriptions. really, i just wish the insurance companies would not have to capitalize so much on this. there has got to be a way, and that is what we need to talk about, how much is pain and suffering for profit? we need to take a lot of the profit out of it. i just hope that the democrats and republicans will face that there is a lot of people that need health care, and they are worse off in may. we have to be compassionate as a nation -- and they are worse off

than me. we have to be compassionate as a nation and take some of the greed out. host: writing about health care for "the washington post" this morning, "president obama is embarking on a final public- relations push on health care friday before heading off on vacation, wading into the same kind of often hostile town hall meetings that members of congress have endured for much of august. even as his allies are stepping up their efforts to de buff -- to rebut what they describe as a myth about health care reform. what they anticipate could be the kind of vocal criticism that has recently dominated the headlines and cable news." also an issue that has been getting a lot of attention, "critics of the administration house health-care proposals were spreading all sorts of lies and distortions through viral

emails that were flying around unchecked. he urged supporters to help start a chain email of our own to rebut what obama has called the wild misrepresentation that bear no resemblance to anything that has been proposed." birinyi joins us from howard beach, new york. good morning. bernie joins us from howard beach, newark. caller: i am a retired clerk secretary for a doctor's office. i saw the c-span obama meeting from vermont -- host: new hampshire, portsmouth, new hampshire. caller: ok, new hampshire. the president said there was a lot of ways because the doctors received patients, they do a test on the patient and then send them to another doctor, a specialist, for instance, and

the specialist would duplicate the test. i can tell you that it is not so. if we do a test where the doctor feels he should be seen by a specialist, he gets a report. constantly answering the phones and working with other doctors' offices, we are being referred to -- getting reports on other testing that has been done, so there is no duplication on the test, be it a cat scan, or an mri. they are expensive. there are always request for results, and further, it is true that the insurance companies -- they will not allow tests within a narrow time frame. if i do a test on monday, they will not allow the same test to be done on tuesday if they find

a mass. yes, they may do a test for an e cagey or an x-ray because the next doctor might want something more current if he is going to do surgery. host: among the latest waiting in -- weighing in on the health- care debate, this ad was released about a week ago from what they call america's health insurance companies. >> a-list does not care where you live or if you are -- illness does not care where you live or if you are already sick or if you lose your job. your health insurance should not either. so let's fix health care. if everyone is covered, which we can make health care as affordable as possible. we are america's health insurance companies. supporting bipartisan reforms that congress can build on. host: an editorial this morning from "the washinton post," "

death panel sideshow," this dominating both "the new york times" and "the washington post" this morning. "a study of 603 patients with advanced ages of cancer published this year by harvard researchers found that the final week of health care costs for those who had discussed and of life treatment with their doctors was 36% lower than those who did not have such talks. but here is the more important finding -- patients who did not discuss treatment options did not live longer but had a worse quality of life in the final week, more likely to be in intensive care or on a ventilator." mike sent us this tweet comment. "remember government involvement in the terry shy of co case when the republicans did not care about the family's wishes? phyllis joins us from florida on the independent line. good morning. caller: the reason why i am calling today, i want to think

he's been very much. the reason for that is watching the local cable news, you get a lot of bias information. i watched the local cable news and they are not feel it -- they are not fooling people anymore. people do not -- people have common sense. you only get one side, and then you look at the polls, and people are not stupid. the only -- the only interview people that do have insurance, and we want them to know that we know that. watching the show on msnbc a couple of days ago, he said that 83% of people want health insurance. i know the names of the major cable news, and they did not

show that. i think that is very sad when i look at c-span, i want to get the real view. let me see who is calling in and give a point of view, and you have a lot of people calling in who want reform. i just one cnn and fox to know that they are not fooling anyone. one lady got up and for the senator at a town hall meeting and said "you woke up a sleeping giant." those that put obama in the white house, that is the sleeping giant. host: rich lowry put in the post, "democrats will be tempted to steamroll their opponents anyway, in which case the populist revolt will have just begun." below that is i"granny lives!

the town hall protests against health care scored their first big victory yesterday when key senators agreed to eliminate the so-called from the legislation." "senator chuck grassley said the provision for counseling patients about end of life decisions was being dropped because it could be misinterpreted or implemented incorrectly." jimmy, joining us from arkansas. good morning. caller: good morning. i would like to make the point that emergency room care for the illegal immigrants and the uninsured, which everyone is telling them to go to, it seems like the uninsured are one step above the illegal emigrants. let the illegals keep their care for the emergency rooms, but at least give the american citizens and probably even residents some kind of step above that. the illegals that go to this

emergency room, they get no bill. but anybody that is a u.s. citizen or a resident gets a bill. host: jimmy from arkansas, and tom from los angeles. republican line, good morning, tom. caller: i have about three things. i called senator baucus' office about my medicare. they have not divulge that information yet. can you tell me, i really did not get an answer. congressman waxman, who is my congressman, has refused -- he there's a comfort on climate change by invitation only.

-- there is a conference on climate change by invitation only. i belong to the largest government-controlled health care system, called the veterans administration. i do not have a doctor. my doctor has 837 patients besides myself. i have had to go get my own doctor so i will know really what is going on, and they only have certain types of medication for certain things. host: we are getting some feedback from the cell phone. i also want to point out that you brought up your involvement as a veteran. the president will be traveling to arizona on monday to address the vfw, and he will be talking about veteran care at that event. i want to show two other stories from the paper, this from "the

new york times" in jacksonville florida, the first casualty of the war in iraq, his remains found. a memorial service will be held in jacksonville, florida, today. and eunice kennedy shriver is more and. members of the kennedy family. we will have leverage -- live coverage on c-span2 getting under way at 10:15 eastern time of the memorial service with the family members of eunice kennedy shriver, who passed away at the age of 88. another tweak -- "only the rowdy meeting seemed to be at democratic representatives and democratic senate meetings but not the gop, which makes you wonder who is making the noise." the republican national committee is also weighing in on the health-care debate. >> they give barack obama their

future without even knowing trillions for government bailout in takeovers, banks and the oil industry, the biggest spending spree in history. the next big ticket item, a risky experiment with health care. barack obama's massive spending experiment has not healed our economy. his new experiment risks our future and our health. the republican national committee is responsible for the content of this advertising. host: part of a $57 million ad campaign recorded by "usa today" and in the a section of "the new york times," "a new $12 million effort by supporters of the president's effort directed at 12 states, that the advertisements are intended to cover the sharp criticism of the president's overhaul efforts that had emerged hit town hall style meetings."

some of the states where you will see the ads running include alaska, arkansas, colorado, indiana, louisiana, maine, montana, nebraska, nevada, north dakota, south dakota, and virginia. david is joining us from north carolina, independent line. good morning. caller: thank you for c-span. obama needs to talk plain language. he needs to talk to americans and say, look, you need to make advanced directives. you need to do this for your children. you need to make your wheels out, living wills and so forth, because your children need -- you need to make your wheelillst and so forth. the eldest child is left to make horrendous decisions. my mother went into a nursing home last year.

my stepfather had cancer. he was in the hospital. at the same time my stepfather died, my mother was in the nursing home, and just before he died, they had nothing. they had no will. i had to totally reconstruct their financial history, i had to get the attorneys in, and we barely made it. within 48 hours, we had the advance directives, the living will made up. as it turns out, in north carolina, the living will is so vague and ambiguous that the north carolina legislature started this thing with a most form, and they bring in a doctor to talk to the patient or the person in the nursing home, and it takes about five hours of interviewing to make sure absolutely what their wishes are. we cannot -- we have got to allow this to remain in the bill.

the advanced directive has got to be in there. how do you want to end your life? do you want to be kept on a respirator? it has got to say in. the elder generation i find is in denial. they think they are going to live forever. they are not taking care of business, and i think that this issue has got to stay in. your listeners, please, if you are not the eldest child, then you do not have to worry about it. but if you are the eldest child in a family, you have some incredible decisions to make. the elder generation has got to take care of business. host: thank you for the call. also, an e-mail along those lines. "this may be the first time in our history that an angry mob managed to have some been removed from legislation that was never there. we turn quickly to the economy. front page of "the washington post," "the surprising

bounceback of growth in europe's largest economy comes on the heels of steadily rising economic optimism across the globe. there are also a couple of other related headlines in the economy as gm -- as ford announces plans to build 495,000 cars and trucks this quarter, up 18% from a year earlier." also this morning, the business section of "the new york times" talking about more growth in the economy. we want to go back to deborah, joining us from marlboro, new jersey, on the democrats' line. good morning. caller: good morning. i would like to comment on the charles krauthammer article that you read and the "the washington times" article that you read. he is saying that there are no free lunches when it comes to health care reform. well --

host: he is talking specifically about preventive care. caller: when ceo's are bringing in $100,000 an hour, i think that would buy a whole lot of free lunches. if we rolled back, and it was part of many ways of paying for this plan, which will be fully funded -- and this is what obama is telling us -- if they roll back just part of the bush tax cuts on people like the ceo's and health insurance companies, 1%, that would pretty much cover all of it. but as far as the local washington times" article, if we do agree to this bargain, if it is truly a bargain, if there is validity to it, offering $80

billion over 10 years is a 2% discount. canada is now receiving anywhere from 30% to did 50% on pharmaceuticals, so i do not think this is a big giveaway. in addition to what we would be giving away, if it is true, would be our government told leverage to negotiate drug costs and our not importing drugs from canada. host: deborah, thank you very much. charles krauthammer's quote in the piece is that "this does not mean we should be preventing illness, but there is no free lunch." and "business week," "the case for optimism: is the worst over ?" >> special interests in washington are spending millions to block health care reform.

>> it is costing us, my husband and i praying, but -- keep paying, but are premiums keep rising. >> it is just not enough. >> the special interests are strong. >> god has given is the spirit of not fear but of love and action. >> millions of people of faith are supporting health insurance reform. >> they will not pay for our surgery, and what we going to do? >> you cannot live this way. >> that will spend tax dollars on abortions but we're forced to pay for our surgery. >> call your senator. stop the government takeover of health care. host: we have been showing you some of the ads that are part of the health-care debate. a couple of more minutes of

phone calls. john from florida, good morning. caller: good morning. i was working for blue care power and i got hurt on the job 20 years ago. i think they should abolish compensation and take this money that all the workers and get rid of all the cell -- also the self-insured and put it into the medicare and medicaid funds. i am constantly paying -- i am constantly fighting saying this is compensation, and it goes back and forth, and back and forth, and i have to use the aarp. i was also using medicare before i was offered it. i think it is ridiculous and the other part of it is the ltd, like a flat. -- like aflac.

i had ltd come a long term disability, -- i had ltd, long- term disability. i just and understand why they cannot do something about it. one more thing, the group is too small, so they are paying $700 a month. the group is, you know, too small if they are paying cobra 300. the whole united states is a group, so why isn't there one premium? host: john, by the way, we talked to the senior vice president for government relations for aarp, yesterday, and his interview, the ads we have been showing you, the town hall meetings, all part of the new site at c-span.org called the health care hub. you can upload videos if you take a flip camera to the town hall meeting. share with us some of the comments that you may have as

far as what you are hearing or seeing, and we will use some of your comments as well. click on health care hub on c- span.org and tell us what you think. the reliable source reporting this morning another president to walk in the park as part of the president's trip to the grand canyon and yosemite national park, a conversation with the brinkley that took place on june 30. he joined doris kerns goodwin and other historians. the brinkley, the author of a two-part conversation, and the story of how it unfolded in parts. you can read part of it inside "the washinton post." a headline yesterday in "the washinton post, a report from barton gellman. we want to check in with the author of the angler, the cheney

vice presidency. "the two men made in respect of ties, speaking on the telephone now and then, though aides to both said they were never quite friends. joining us from new york is barton gellman. thank you for being with us. how did this story come about? guest: i was wondering about dick cheney, and i guess it is kind of a obsession for me now that i have written a book on him. my question for him is that what is he putting in his memoir because he is sort of the anti- memoir guy, and he has spoken out for years about the inside cover sessions and then -- host: let me read an excerpt from the piece that you wrote

yesterday, that " when the president made decisions that i did not agree with, i still supported him and did not go out and undercut him. now we are talking about after we have left office. i have strong feelings about what happened and i do not have any reason not to forthrightly express those views." guest: exactly, and the views are turning out to be somewhat of what we expected and somewhat otherwise. we knew he did not agree with all of bush's policy in the second term. by the end of the presidency, bush was walking away from secret prisons from a policy of complete isolation against iran and north korea. instead, he was engaging them. she not only disagrees, but what he is saying privately now is that bush was changing for the wrong reasons, bowling to public criticism. for cheney, -- bowing to

public criticism. host: when is the vice- president's book expected to come out? we're told that president bush's book will be out next fall. guest: cheney will be -- his book is scheduled for the following spring. host: we're talking with barton gellman, a reporter for "the washington post." "some old associates see cheney's new-found openness as a breach of principle. robert barnett, who negotiated cheney past book contract, passed word that the member would be packed with news, that the statute of limitations has expired on many of his secrets." what secrets do you think he is going to reveal? guest: i think fundamentally he

is talking about the nature of the internal deliberations. he has always said that you cannot get candid advice as the president because everybody is worried that the competition will be talked about later. that seems to be what he plans to do. the thing about dick cheney is that he is so focused most of all on the here and now, that the country is turning away from his views and that is a huge mistake, a danger, and he knows how to protect us. he is prepared to explain why, but his views on why they were retreated from. host: i would like you to go back to the summer of 2004 because in july and early august, there has been a lot of conversation about whether or not dick cheney would stay on a ticket with vice president bush. how credible were those stories? guest: i heard them and i tried to check amount, and it is the time of thing that i am very

careful thought it is time -- it is the type of thing that i will not speculate. right around that spring, there was a significant episode involving a dispute over nsa domestic surveillance in which bush lost, but it's in cheney to some degree. he became aware that cheney could lead him off a cliff. but i have no reason to believe that bush never took seriously the idea of dropping him. host: and there has also been some allusions, based on your reporting, that the two were not really close friends during their eight years in the white house. guest: they were not friends. they did not socialize come and dine together. there was a emotional moment when john kerry conceded it

when they're look like there might be a dispute. and george bush is a hugger, and he started toward cheney with his arms out, and he stopped myself like i know you are not the hugging kind, and that is when they had a handshake. host: abc news used a exit last night about his response to the park were, and his response was, so? talked-about the response to the public sentiment. guest: dick cheney is the model politician. it is kind of like choosing a surgeon. after that, -- cheney believes that the governing elite

understand things that the public cannot know and that the public gets to have a say again in the next election. a president cannot afford to be an anti-politician because that is not the way we are governed. there is a process of participation and consensus building that comprises a lot of the power of the president. cheney believes you stick with your policies, come what may, and was believed that was dangerous. .

when you have a responsibility for protecting the country, you have to take these things seriously. it has to be said, the country has moved away from his views. host: your story appeared above the fold yesterday with the headlines, "cheney on cloaks his frustrations." he is also the author of "engler, the cheney vice presidency." in a minute me turn our attention to the netroots occurring on line today. as we continue our conversation

with many of the nation's leading mares, cory booker of new jersey will be here. and we begin with our book series, 1959. first, an update. >> secretary of state hillary clinton is in cape verde today, on her final stop of her 11- nation african door. after meeting with the prime minister, the secretary returned to the united states. and jim webb has arrived in myanmar to meet with the country's military rulers. he is the first military -- member of congress to visit the country in more than a decade. in defense contractor with longtime ties to representative john murtha says the navy is

allowing it once again to get new work even though the criminal investigation into a possible link between campaign contributions and earmarks continues. an attorney says the firm was removed from excluded parties list since then falling some accounting adjustments. and education secretary arne duncan is joining up with al sharpton and newt gingrich to help failing schools. that we will visit philadelphia, new orleans, and baltimore later this year. those are some of the latest headlines. host: expert is ground zero for the netroots convention. joining me on line is the editor of redstate, eric erickson. tell us about your blog and what

you are representing. >> we are one of the largest conservative communities online, and i am here to talk about conservative activism on line can become a larger participants. the beauty of the internet now is that people can interact with each other across the country. host: we have been speaking to reporters in pittsburgh and they say even those they are holding their own events, they are not trying to compete with the netroots generation . . what does that tell you about all -- where all of this is heading? guest: we still have a ways to go in competitive online. when the right was in power,

they rallied around the technology of the time, talk radio. when the left took over, they run around the internet. the right has a ways to catch up. there cannot be a competition right now between the right and left, and frankly, a lot of people on the right are still focused on punditry than they are on activism. host: when there is the issue of health care or bailouts, what is your view of the obama administration, and what is the message to your viewers? guest: we need to rally to work together to try to push back on some of these issues. polls are showing in my readers realize that from obama is further left than we thought he was and is pushing the nation in a direction that we do not want to go. host: on your website now is the

issue of this insurance czar, that it would be appointed to oversee your choices. this would be his 33rd czar appointed since his inauguration. could you elaborate? guest: it is amazing, after criticizing the bush administration for so many autocratic rules, there are now 33 czars who are picked directly by the president, and they have influence in making policy. they cannot call the shots, but they can be very effective. we started in the 1980's with the drug czar. we are kind of being overrun by them. host: we are speaking with erick erickson. your convention starts tomorrow

online. what is the talk? guest: we are on fairly opposite sides of the city. the buzz on the right is there is a growing optimism that republicans may be able to take back the house of representatives, or at least make mid again inroads in 2010. there is also a thought that the bride is finally starting to become competitive online. a lot of the left sides are starting to reduce in leadership. we have one of the very few businesses that barack obama is not hurting. host: byron york right to an article, in essence saying that the polls are moving in the gop's direction.

it is a possibility that republicans only speak up in whispers. does this feel like 1984 from your perspective? guest: to a degree, it does. if you look at 1993, some of the indicators was the number of special state legislators that republicans took over. this year already we picked up 15 seats in legislative special elections, and it looks like we could get virginia and new jersey. there are these early barometers and measurements we can take, and it looks that way. in different in 1994, though, was that there was a message that republicans were able to rally around. right now there is not one of them opposing the president's policies. host: how did an attorney become a blogger?

guest: a friend of mine started the website and he started to ask me to write. i was doing the election law, and i started to help out, and now i do this full time and no longer practice law. host: do you also tweet and if so, what is your address? guest: eerickson. host: no medicare, no social security. no housing. here is another tweet. your response? guest: democrats are so respond -- this missive of republicans

talking about this legislation. if they want to take seriously the republicans want to get into medicare, medicaid, a senior housing, then they need to do with assisted suicide. host: let me ask you, should the government advise a family member if their loved one is facing a terminal illness? guest: i do not think that is the role of the government. that is the role with the family and doctors. i understand the argument on the other side that it does not force people into having these conferences -- the government never forces any one to do anything, it just pressures you. this is the first step. we see what is happening in oregon now where individuals who cannot afford cantor treatment on the state program will receive a letter saying that we cannot afford your treatment,

and here is a letter to a suicide assistance program. i think some of the rumors are overstated, but that is definitely where we are headed. rahm emanuel's brother has talked about balancing that comes in to control and care and what services can be provided. he wrote it says only in extreme circumstances like organ donation, but if we get to the point where we have 45 million people on the government program, we will have more than just extreme situations where we have to ration care. host: first phone call from indiana. caller: good morning. you are rich. do you watch a lot of tv, or do

you spend most of your time spending the tabloids? guest: actually, i watch a lot of cartoons with my three-year old. caller: that probably is why he did not talk about facts. i am a liberal. i am not the kind that is just very -. i watch fox news, cnn, cnbc. i get on different blogs and internet sites, and it is pretty good, i will give you credit where credit is due. unfortunately, as i said in the beginning, you are worse than tabloids. you need to run a fact check on the stuff you put out there. host: your response?

guest: i get this a lot from the left when they talk about backs, but those same people often have to check their own facts. host: carol from ohio. good morning. caller: i have not read your blog because i stopped committing them because all they do is go to win the issues and try to make -- stop people from thinking for themselves. i am on medicare. your side has totally frightened senior citizens in the country. i have had cancer twice. i had a living will put up 20 years ago after at high -- i had cancer for the first time. i refused to let machines dictate my end of life. i want to die with dignity,

naturally, and as a christian, i will die in peace. if any of you are listening and you are question, come to terms with your own death. that is what you have to do anyway. none of us are getting out of this life free of death. and another thing. the republicans were totally against medicare in the 1960's. where would we be without medicare today? host: we appreciate your call. caller: i think people need to come to terms with their salvation before their death. my parents are on medicare, and i do not think anyone is interested in getting rid of that. i always find it interesting when people say that republicans want to kill medicare.

maybe we ought to consider a world where we did not have medicare and maybe we had something better in place? host: another tweet -- guest: i think there are actually more voices online demographically on the right than the left. the most vocal people on line on the web are on the left. i do think it is interesting that michelle malkin is doing successfully host. host: here is an e-mail. guest: generally kind of people

who say they are republican and talk about these guys know what they're speaking out. it is clear in the second administration there was a great deal of distance between george bush and dick cheney. the situation is clear that we were pretty critical of the president. we caught him on immigration. we fought him on bank bailouts, t.a.r.p. one of the things we get criticized for a lot among republicans is we frequently throw harder punches and our own side than as democrats. host: i do not know if you were able to see the peace yesterday, by barton gellman. guest: i do not know the background. i know there was some tension

there, particularly among the conservatives said that believe the second bush white house was a different one altogether from the first term in 2000. by and large, that seems to be because dick cheney was immortalized in the second term. -- marginalized in the second term. host: these are the voices of the vice-president, according to his biographer -- guest: i think we are going to see that. i was able to have lunch with him. there has been a lot of conservatives on capitol hill that have told me during the

bush administration, in the second term, as policies were coming from the white house, they would see people from the vice president's office on capitol hill offering advice on how to undermine policies and get back to the president's ideas than those people in the vice-president office felt like they were not getting. i do not know if the vice- president was behind that. i suspect he was. i think he is more free not to speak his mind. up i would say that he is probably one of the most loyal vice president we have had in some time only because he did not have a further political ambition. while it was marked for president bush to do that -- he never had to second-guess because the vice president was never planning on running for office, but there was a leadership vacuum when the vice- president was not consumed the leader of the party that the president was leading.

host: redstate nation, we have our next phone call from butler, tennessee. caller: i have been a republican all my life. i have been to vietnam. i have been in law enforcement. miami working poor man, always been there all my life. i poured concrete most of my life. i know the republican party. i could write a book on and, and you are not part of it, son. you are part of that deal that came in in 1994. you are too young to know what the real republican party is. i believe in the trickle-down theory. i do not like government running my country. but i know the government does

run this country, but i also know the war hops and oil people control. you are part of that, son. you brought us down to a lower level, and when i noticed that young republicans are controlling this government, more money is stolen from the taxpayers and put into the pockets of gunrunners. that is what you are part of. host: a response? guest: [laughter] maybe is a generational thing. i am an elected council in macon, georgia. host: next phone call from lakewood, colorado. caller: i really appreciate what

that older gentleman from tennessee said. he is correct. the republican party has gone so far right. in this marketplace of ideas on your blog, do you allow an open exchange of ideas? guest: anyone can, and, and anyone right of center candidate as long as it is respectable. caller: i tried to come and as a liberal, and i tried to be respectful, but i noticed you do not tolerate any disagreement whatsoever, yet you are the very people advocating that all the republicans go to democratic town halls when you do not allow democrats to post on your republican internet site. that does not seem like a free and open exchange of ideas to

me. guest: actually, we have had senator byrd been posted on internet issues. one of our front page contributors is very much part of the left. we do have democrats regularly engaged in comments. the issue is people coming to the site to disrupt it. i am not aware of anyone we have thrown off the site just because they disagree with us. generally, we respect others on the website. host: one of the comments you posted yesterday, obama's brown chair to try to silence glenn back. one that reference? guest: there was a great book " liberal fascism" that talked about how woodrow wilson ran this group of citizens out of the government.

they shut down newspapers, arrest people, and now we have a situation where the president to green jobs czar started an organization that is now trying to shut down plan back and to get advertising away from him this is an issue that the right to care about, especially as we try to push the fairness doctrine in congress. if the left tries to get sponsors to drop sponsorship, does the right knee to respond? i think so. guesthost: in response to major garrett, robert gibbs had this exchange with him. >> i'm keeping a picture of my hero, major garrett close by all the time. he is the only one that asks the tough questions. bless you.

hello, america. i have been watching the media watch the media watch the town hall protests. remember the initial reaction? i believe it was astroturf. these people are not real. and barbara boxer, babs, said the last time she saw such nicely dressed fit protest was in 2000 in florida with eleanor. i lived in florida. maybe i was responsible for that, too. that was not fake, that was real anger. host: your reaction to some of his comments yesterday? guest: i think he was bought on. we have harry reid collins protesters going to these town halls evil mongers.

nancy pelosi is saying that they are using nazi-like tactics to silence people. meanwhile, what we reported on, if you go to craigslist can you type in obama and reform, in most cities, you will find seiu, and acorn, and other organizations asking for your help. i guess you have to be subsidized by george soros to be a real activist. host: this is another one, a twitter from a viewer -- guest: nancy pelosi has talked about it. barney frank has been up front with it.

what the democrats are doing is not actually legislating in, but there are appointing people to the sec that will start to do this again. we are already seeing, setting local standards and community panels that local radio and tv stations have to be responsible to. this is a way to bring pressure on media outlets to get them to not their views than generally liberal activists do not like. host: delray beach, florida. good morning. caller: i was wondering, when i heard nancy pelosi call people nazis -- and i am a veteran. i spent 17 years defending this country. these congressmen calling us names, they need to be recalled and sent back home packing.

they do not need to be there. what do you think? guest: there are no recall laws in congress, so they will need to be beaten in the ballot box. whether or not you agree with them, go ahead and work. not on doors, donate money. get involved. host: cape cod, mass. caller: you are doing a great job, we appreciate c-span. so much frustration sometimes listening to seize them because you get away from the real issues and truth. that is why i am an independent. i would like to see not so much congressman from the left, from the right. usually people from the right

say that everyone else is a hitler-type. i am not into blogging. the reason i am independent is because of the leave 50% of the country is independent, or they cannot stand the burbage on the left and right. -- verbage on the left and right. we were sold a war in the bush administration. member telling us how ariel sharon was a peacemaker. that was the last straw. any republican that want to take these lines has something going

for them. maybe they want to be a republican blogger. the real world, people need and understand, and think, please. know what the truth is. the 80% of canadians love their leftist, communist health care program. all the european countries have medicare and-tight single payer that works. host: we will stop you there because we only have a few minutes left. guest: we have had several callers delving into these facts, but many of which are not actually facts. the left and right can accuse each other of not knowing the facts, but at the end of the day we are stuck with the situation

whether or not people like their health care. the fact is, they know nothing else. we know something better. statistically, people from canada and great britain, here to get health care. when the president tell anyone that they like their health care and nothing will change, and 85% of americans like their health care, why do we need a total overhaul of the system? host: another tweet -- guest: we try to find the left, but also the right. one of our most high-profile issues has been the intraparty fight over mark rubio in florida. we were disappointed with the party choosing charlie crist.

we bring leading a boycott of fundraising for him. we retain the right about the building the party. that is a focus for myself. host: danny, from new iberia, louisiana. caller: i would like to encapsulate everything that this young man has said, that the republican party was very successful in the news media and tv broadcast, which they had the resources to buy, and ron reagan opened a pandora's box when he opened up the communications. basically, you cannot lie to people. then you had the rise of the right-wing media, and they held an outline of your people, scared them, misrepresented the truth. the internet was created as an alternative to it. you are never going to dominate

it. this is our answer. host: thank you. guest: how do not know if i even have a response to that. the great thing about the internet is anyone can set up a blog and the dominant voices will rise to the top. how have been fortunate enough to be one of them. host: last phone call from north carolina. caller: good morning. keep on keeping on. i do not really read blogs and people need to go research. bloggers are just regular people. you should go to the source. seiu is a racist organization.

they talk about land back. the reason that they do not like him is because he tells the truth. -- glenn beck. everybody better wake up. i watched chuck grassley's town hall meeting, and there were a bunch of crooks given their opinion. anyone in the white house is nothing but a crook. people better wake up. ya'll have a great day, and you keep on keeping on. guest: thank you. host: ken from virginia, independent line. caller: good morning, erick.

i have some things to say about the republican party. under bush power, all he was interested in was the war and oil. he also lied to the american people about not using taxpayer money to pay for the war over there, the rebuilding of iraq. also, wall street banks failed. the last thing must bush spent trillions of dollars and raped the economy. host: i'm going to stop you there. we will get a response. guest: this goes back to what i was saying earlier.

they think that the first and second administration were the same. they were vastly different operations. if they listen to vice president cheney more, some of these things may not have happened. at the same time, there were things in place over time that led to this bank collapse. i do know that it is right to blame it all on the bush administration, although towards the end of the second administration, it was ridiculous when the government was doing. republicans have to be responsible for that. when they lose their way and forget what they represent, they will have problems. that is why i highlight this fight between charlie crist and marko rubio. will the republicans get smaller and become fiscal conservatives, or will they continue to support people like from the crest?

i would like to see us return to smaller government conservatives. host: this tweet saying -- guest: unfortunately, there are too many people in the republican party who see themselves as republicans and conservatives. the republican party is simply in accumulation of power, as well as the democratic party. whether you're liberal or conservative, having a background in some believes should be able to guide you. in both parties i think there are too many people that are committed to holding onto power as part of the party apparatus instead of having ideas move forward. i am not a big fan of barney frank but i agree with him when he says that you need to be a liberal or conservative because the honor to stand for nothing. host: the editor of redstate

nation and our participant in a series of conventions happening in the pittsburgh today. thank you for being with us. live coverage of the netroots begins at 11:00 eastern today. we will be hearing from howard dean among others. tomorrow, we will be with me right on line convention also taking place across the river. in our next hour, fred kaplan will be joining us, the author of "1959." in a moment, we will introduce you to the mayor of newark, new jersey, mayor cory booker -- corey booker. "road to the white>> our guestse

martin anderson, or bret baier, and on kessler, and we will be taking your phone calls and tweetts. >> sonia sotomayor attended a white house reception this week with president obama. we will show and as part of c- span's america and the courts. saturday, 7:00 eastern. >> the contributing editor to "news whip" profiling people who have overcome significant obstacles in their life. >> this fall, enter the home of america's court from grand public places to place is only accessible to the justices. the supreme court, coming the

first sunday in october. host: we continue with our look at some of the nation's leading mayors. joining us from new york city is the mayor of newark, new jersey. thank you for being with us. guest: thanks for having me on. host: a centerpiece for your campaign was public safety. how are we doing? guest: we have made a lot of progress. we are down 40% in shootings. down 1/3 in murders. the largest decrease in the nation in both indices over the last three years, but any new yorker would tell you that we have a lot of work to do. we will continue to fight this until we can exemplify the greatest transformation in public safety. i believe that we have the capacity to do that as long as the city continues to work together. host: for those familiar with

new work, you may consider that the final stop before going to penn station, but tell us about your city and what is known for. hostguest: every generation of r country, nor has led -- newark has led the nation in many different things like industry, and jazz, arts. it was one of america's busiest cities in terms of, is because it is between new york and philadelphia. famous authors, athletes. now it is the center place for education. it is still a center for arts and entertainment in the state with the largest the arena, irina, library. right now it is the second fact is growing city behind boston.

we are now booming in population. businesses are moving back to the city. companies are coming back in, and we are really positioning ourselves to redefine what the future of american cities will be, try to change the narrative of what urban centers can be. host: well you are doing that you are also trying to keep the crime rate down. with unemployment at 14%, how do you do that? guest: the unemployment rate in america has grown considerably, but we have reached a level that is unacceptable to anyone. but we are still going to focus on what we believe is the potential of our city and our community in the 21st century economy. we are working on innovative ways. any challenge in our nation's history has been the test of the imagination of our people, so we

are trying to find ways to empower our people to express -- to succeed. whether we have math programs, were getting millions of dollars back in turn income tax credit money that used to go unclaimed by residents, whether it is finding ways to help residents find jobs, or more importantly, start businesses -- so we started an aggressive loan fund. the city and nonprofits are pushing loans opening of many businesses in our city from pediatricians to coffee shops, ice cream shops. we have also attracted the new economy. we want to have the american dream and we need to have the green dream. we have attracted three smaller companies to our city. under our governor, we are now the second-biggest producer of solar energy and panels.

we have by a fuel companies. we are looking to train our residents to do with the recession and energy upgrades. we are proud of that. we are providing wehtheriza a trackin one of america's biggest airports, the nation's highways and railways, we realize we can be competitive in the global supply chain by getting more warehousing in our ports. we just finished a warehouse that is pulling hundreds of people. we have country -- company of realizing that building off the coast is a cost saver. they are also able to reduce the

cost of doing business. we have seen in inflow of banks, tech companies. now our governor and john corzine passed one of the best stimulus bill is in america, which is really a tax credit bill. in new york city you can build for $7 a foot, so we are having a lot of people coming in to have won the best building periods in our city's history. host: there was a piece about you. all want to talk about this juxtaposition of the work. there is a new downtown arena, some bright complicate -- complex places and a history scene, but is still a drug

infested, poverty stricken place. riviera is across the street from then on a plant, around the corner from the abandoned buildings. guest: the best experience is when people come in for a show at helen new performing arts center or arena, and they are shocked because the image of newark is trapped in a time that does not exist anymore. we are doubling the amount of affordable housing. we have the largest expansion of parks and our city in over a century. we're transforming rapidly. the residents are pulling together, focusing on our core values and common objectives, and making tremendous progress. we are going to shock a lot of people as they come to newark to discover our city, but more

importantly, the speed at which we are taking back our city. you talk about drugs and violence. we left the nation in an auction of shootings and murders, and i think we will have another one like that. we are not where we want to be, but we are setting the standard for urban transportation by being innovative. we have reentry programs that are showing results that are well below what the national average of recidivism iare. the highest performing public school in one county is a newark school. from health care to education, technology in crime fighting, we are not an early adapter to new technology, new ideas, and i think will become one of the city's pointing to the future. one of the reasons i believe that time magazine did a profile

on what we're doing -- you have to read the article, not just that one part -- but one of the reasons that a lot of these periodicals are focusing on new jersey is because we are starting to show the strength of our community, city, and what could be done in good americans pulled together and are determined not to talk about rhetoric or party label, but about progress. host: we are speaking to corey booker, who received his doctorate from yale university. before we take our first phone call, where does the name newark come from? guest: there is a lot of debate. some people believe it has a biblical implication, being a

new ark of the covenant. that is the one i like because i do believe that we were founded on lofty ideas, they come in and among the people -- a covenant among the people. we still have this now and utterance of out of many we are one, and as a nation, i think we can understand how much we have in common. it can really be a motivating factor for change. we are discovering that in a powerful place. i am often fatigued by the left- right debate and how the polls people to be this time, but we have everyone let me manhattan institute, a traditional leftist institutes, but that is not what it is about.

it is about making progress on the ground. i think that is why we have shown some innovative possibilities to these ongoing challenges. host: kalamazoo, mich. good morning. caller: i cannot start monday without watching your show. thank you. i want to ask you a question involving homeland security. i wonder if you have received any threats recently, and if so, as homeland security -- has homeland security been involved in stopping those threats? how do you plan to protect the people and make this a stronger and more productive?

your citizens and businesses have want to feel safer. could you help me with that? i live in the midwest in a small town called kalamazoo -- it really does exist. i would like to know if our money is being well spent, if you are receiving funds to help you grow. if so, more power to the government. guest: i appreciate that. host: we do have some information that we can put on the screen relating to stimulus money, according to your government website. money being spent, $3.5 million for homelessness prevention. city street resurfacing, $5 million. some improvements at penn station.

guest: it is also money for summer job programs for kids. you cannot track and on the website, but she asked and poured a question about homeland security. i am grateful for her question. my grandfather moved to michigan in a northern migration of many african-americans to the automobile plants. we have to focus on homeland security. there have been threats. there celebrated ones, in fact. the prudential building in our city, one of the best building we have, they were threatened. we are very keen to focus on homeland security when you sit on the largest transportation to restructure in the northeast. you really have to be aware of your airport security, or to charity, roads, because we are

a critical point. i want all of us as americans, as i let people know all the time, then the fear of the immediate threat of terrorism -- we cannot allow the long-term threat to our national security go unnoticed. i had a conversation with colin powell where he talked about terrorism, and i raise my hand and asked him what the greatest threat to our democracy was over the next 50 years? he did not miss a beat without hesitation and said the greatest threat to our democracy is our inability to educate all of our children and the divisions that still exist in america. as a young man who is in a city every day, who sees and what is happening on the national level with education, we have to recognize we are competing a

national strength which is in direct competition with a global reality. in the 21st century knowledge- based economy, where america is not number one in education, we have to begin to think about what that means. in addition to that, if you look just at measuring gdp -- and mckinsey did a wonderful study about the cost of gdp for low high-school graduation rates that we have, the high school achievement, and it had an impact on gdp measures in the trillions. we have to understand that we can educate all children. every city has examples of schools, from high poverty environments with single parents and the like, and kids are achieving at high levels.

we decided that there are all these islands of excellence in the country, and the only challenge we have is not can we indicate children, but do we have the will to advance these islands of excellence? we had a number of programs that we are working on aggressively. as great as we are as a country, i know that our long-term success is dependent on the third graders, fourth graders that are now in school. they are the ones that will make america's security in the future and we owe them more than we are giving them now. host: our conversation is with corey booker error, mayor of new jersey. -- corey bookecory booker, mayow

jersey. caller: i used to work in the area. i also went to school. to have to admit, the downtown area is nice. you have the credentials center. these and public transportation. you have improved on a lot of things. my question is a are you going to do what you can to bring the new jersey nets home? that would be excellent. guest: the reality is, pro basketball has long been in the city of newark. right now the nets are being moved to brooklyn. we hope there will be an opportunity to buy the team to

keep him in new jersey. we think it can be a tremendous revenue driver for our state, as long as -- as well as creating a lot of energy. i am in agreement with you, and that is something we are working on. we are hoping the owners of the team can see from a revenue analysis that the team will succeed most in a brand new arena and in newark, new jersey. host: new york giants or new jersey giants? guest: i am friends with some of the team members, and they give me special permission to call them the new jersey giants. they play in new jersey. we celebrate them, and i am celebrating them. the new york yankees are my favorite team, but as far as i'm

concerned, the giants can be in new jersey. host: the new york jets? guest: i am not as big of a fan, but as we know, both of them are doing pretty good. we claim them as one of our own. host: across the river from queens, new york. good morning. caller: my friends and i saw on the documentary "streetlights" and we were really impressed. guest: that was a documentary done on my first election. i am a vegetarian, but now i make an exception for penn with me because of that film. who can compete with morgan freeman? host: next phone call.

caller: what we want you to do is to keep clean. you find this with a lot of people on the republican side, on the left, as well on the democratic side. and those of us who are black and successful and have fun, and we are of substance, many times we stayed away from various people because we see the negativity. basically, you have turned this city around. you are positive, but i want you to stay focused because you have a lot of negativity, and a lot of people who come from an ancestry of general overhaul. you have people who were jailed in prisons and now they have sound, a great-grandson who do not understand the fact that you have to be loving in this

country. keep the good work up. i support you because i know you are doing a good job. i traveled with my granddaughter from miami all the way to boston, and we stop at princeton, harvard, yale, and we had a chance to give her the opportunity. if you do not think in terms of giving these young people the opportunity to get ahead and try to get into these prepatorial programs, and forget about this negativity, because there were many instances where people left and came to my area to the south which left the motive of dealing with problems like general motors. .

i thought i could best serve the president by continuing in my role in new jersey. i've been blessed to show that we are all americans and he is our leader. but the caller said has a lot of truth in it. i don't think a democrat or republican [no audio] america is a great country because it does not matter who or for fathers were. we deal with people as they are. no matter what someone's

background or state or religion, we are all americans. the things we do are a reflection of the divine. i like that we have republican mines and democrat lines, but i am a to interestmuch less intert divides us and rather what we are unified by. jack kemp was one of the men who originated enterprise zones, which are driving millions of dollars of investment into american cities. our current president with some of his ideas around education. and duncan, education secretary, doing phenomenal things that are transforming. we recognize we have more that unites us than divides us. i appreciate the call or giving testimony to that sentiment.

host: we are with corey booker, the mayor of newark, new jersey. >caller: good morning. how do you feel about us getting our funding cut to further your political career? it guguest: in my opinion, all f new jersey is hurting and getting money cut. we have had a tremendous amount of state aid being cut. this is the problem, sir. we could continue to divide new jersey north against south and urban versus suburban all we can realize we are all in this together, that we have one common destiny. in 1963 folks caught in an inescapable network of mutuality in jail cells.

injustice anywhere in new jersey or in america is a threat to justice anywhere. i grew up in suburban new jersey in a small town called harrington park at the top of the state. what goes on for kids up there can go on with kids that i am now serving in newark, the kind of things that ultimately will affect each person. we have a state have to have a vision and a plan for the whole state. our cities have to become engines of economic opportunity. already newmarket is a city that has over 100,000 people from all around the state that come to work every single day to new ark. 100,000 people all are employed at the port. the majority don't come from newark. in terms of producing tax revenue and corporate tax and business revenue and art and culture and opportunity for the state, what would happen if we

supercharged that and went back to a century ago where our cities were producing engines for the entire domestic economy as well as our state economy? this is what i believe. this city fails commager's details. if our city succeeds, new jersey succeeds. the town where you are from, cryer ta -- briartown, i believe we won't go anywhere if we are divided. but if we stay together and look a strategies that will work for all of us. john kors 9, whenever you want to say about him, i analyzed them on issues of economic empowerment for the entire state. -- jon corzine. governors were spending like crazy and 90's, democratic and

republican. it was not a democratic or republican problem. it was a problem with the government. all of us should come up with solutions that will create benefits for everybody and not just newark. we don't want to battle each other and teardown our state and our nation. we have a history of good people, whites and blacks, republicans and democrats coming together to do what is necessary. whether it is during freedom rides to the south or storming the beaches of normandy. this is the time to talk about common sacrifice and a common struggle. why does our city have a 40% reduction in murders in 2008? because the corporate sector, because of the nonprofit sector, because of community leaders all came together and did things there were not doing before. if we will continue the kind of bifurcated cacophony of conflict that has divided us over years

in new jersey, we will end up in the same place as we are right now predict we are all willing to do something different, have dialogue and agree on strategies, we as a state will continue to go forward. this nation started in new jersey. the battle of trenton turned the tide in the revolutionary war. every generation, we have been united front it transcontinental railroad built in new jersey. the first radio waves. from the invention of the submarine. baseball. the first brewery in our country were in new jersey. if our state would come together, we can reclaim our position as a state that's helping lead america to the prosperity and to success. that's what i believe. you sound like a republican, but, rather, you are part of the solution. >> on the republican line we have pat in fort worth, texas.

good morning. caller: i suggest everybody reached the book and find out where we are now. people keeping into little people's houses and taking them. they talk about relocating people. i know what the code words mean. they want to get the old people out of their houses and into apartment buildings so they can round them up quickly this new code i'm looking at on the internet. when did we get under international anything and when did code it's become a corporation? >host: thank you. hoguest: in my lifetime and in

my parents' lifetime, america was a leading nation on the globe. i'm interested in international banking. swine flu, we found out diseases don't know borders. environmental problems and disasters don't know borders. the global economy, what happens if an asian markets affect the prosperity of people in our city because we are a port city and trade is important. we can no longer live as a country with our head in the sand and not realize we are part of a larger international community. i'm american and i want to beat in the nation that leads the world, that shows the world light and hope. he talked about the bible from the beginning. i americans can be like isiah, be a light unto nations. i'm a believer that what happens in the globe starts with what is happening in my city and what my community is doing. we believe in weatherizing houses. we believe we should be the change we want to see the world. i have seniors on fixed incomes

that's rising energy costs. if we weatherize their house, we can cut their bill for upwards of 30% just by doing good weatherization. it has a better fit for the city in that it creates jobs for my residence. it saves money for the seniors. it improves the environment. we have asthma levels and other health concerns that are almost at epidemic proportions, like other cities. we are americans. it means something. we need to stand up and begin to live our values. a great theologians everywhere i go, i preached the gospel, but only sometimes do i use words. again, we are trying to do in our city, not any kind of weird conspiracy theories about relocation. we are trying to improve home ownership rates and keep more seniors in their homes. we have senior citizen rehab programs. if we are working ways to give tax relief to seniors. we are looking at ways to

improve the life and quality of life in our city. the secret to all of this, all the progress we will make in our city, and i believe the city will rise, but the progress we need to make america all starts with what individuals decide to do. gaundique said to be the change you want to see the world. if weast are going to continue to see -- a hot monday said to be the change you want to see in the world. abraham said the world is a reflecting pool. what use the outside view is often a reflection of what you have inside you. what you perceive often becomes reality. now to the christmas and i had when i was a young person, my mother told me you can learn more from the woman on the fifth floor of the project than you can learn from a fancy law professor at yale. my first professor in new jersey was a great woman named virginia jones billups. the first day i went to see her,

she said, before you talk about helping people are being a part of this community, first describe what you see around you. i described some challenges i saw in the city. i talked about graffiti and drugs. she should occur head. she said, boy, you need to understand something. the world use the outside is a reflection of what you have inside you. if you see on the problems and darkness and despair, that's all it's ever going to be. but it use the opportunity and possibility, then you can be someone able to make change. in america we are here because people saw labor laws that made sense and we got there. in the midst of child labor, people saw universal public education and we got there. in the midst of slavery and degradation and then people saw freedom. and people got the right to vote. we are a nation that has not always seen the challenges of where we are. we've seen a hope and

possibility of where we could go. this is a time for us to take stock in who we want to be as americans. do we want to be a country that people fear they will declare bankruptcy because they cannot pay medical bills? or will we be a country that finds a way to provide better health care for everyone? will we be a nation with graduation rates around 50% or 60%? or will we find a way to lead the globin educating our kids at the highest levels in math and science. will we be the nation of our dreams? i think our forefathers and foremothers thought to achieve that. now with our generation's turn to show what we as a people can do. i believe people in my city will take problems that other people said or impossible, whether it's crowding of prisons, whether it's crime or problems with education, and we will do our best to give our measure of sacrifice for finding resolutions to them. what it kne-- watch newark.

at the end of the day, every one of our children, black, white, republican, democratic, stand up and a course in september and seven boards again that we are one nation under god, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. those words are still aspirational. we still have work to do. we won't be called to kill a jima. w-- we will not be called to go to it would jiwojima, bute called to do some great things the our grandchildren will remember a sport. >-- remember us for. host: we have been with corey booker, mayor of newark.

thank you for being here. >guest: thank you. host: we have a news update from c-span radio. >> it's 9:15 a.m. eastern. the commerce department says consumer prices showed no change in july, in line with analysts' expectations. over the past 12 months, prices dropped the most in nearly six decades due to the recession and lower energy costs. the white house is asking congress for at least $1 billion in next year's defense budget to expand the army's active-duty forces by another 15,000 troops in 2010. this follows last month's decision seeking 22,000 more troops in iraq and afghanistan. the pentagon said this increase is only temporary. the u.s. military officials say proposed agreement to use 7

columbia bases would not change the u.s. missions in that country or increase the number of troops. negotiations are expected to be completed by the end of the month. the venezuelan president calls the plant a serious threat to the region. more on the recent presidential context in iran. an opposition leader has received reports that protesters detained after a disputed presidential election are being tortured in jail. the testimonies came from prisoners witnessing the violence and war abuse, themselves, while in detention. finally, the committee reviewing the nasa human spaceflight program says that under current funding, there's no realistic way to get americans back, and by 2020. the 10-member committee meets today with administration officials. those are some of the latest headlines on c-span radio. host: we want to welcome to the program fred kaplan. the book is called "1959, the

year everything changed. you say everything was changing and everyone knew it when the world began to take form, the world as we now know it. >> 1959 was the year of the microchip, the birth control pill, space exploration, the first nonstop coast-to-coast jet travel, court cases that overthrew the laws banning obscenity, many federal and state court cases overturning laws of segregation. it was the year of new kinds of pop art and abstract art, independent films, free jazz, sick comedy, everything we associate with alive today you can trace through developments that were going on at the end of the 1950's. host: what led you to put this book together? guest: bowyers ago it occurred to me that a lot of my favorite groundbreaking movies, books,

record albums all came out in 1959. i began to wonder is this a coincidence or was this part of a broader pattern going on both i began to casually looked into it and then more as i suddenly realized that first of all, a lot of very different things were going on. you can say that about a lot of years. but the things better or going on were converging in a single direction. it was a pivotal time in american history. the country was going in one direction and then began to shift into another direction. host: we will take your calls or e-mails. or you can send us to mea tweet. our guest says the new pas --

explained. guest: the everybody seems to think the world changed in the 1960's and it was the baby boomers. i am one of the baby boomers. i discovered, actually, that a lot of what we associate with the late 60's, started in the 1950's. the instigators or not the baby boomers. but the generation you referred to instead. it's a different side of what we have known as the greatest generation. the people who came up to form the united states and the world and may be slightly more anti- establishment sense than what we're used to hearing about. host: you said the seeds of the kennedy campaign began in 1959. then you bring it to today.

guest: i think the time we're going through right now has a lot of parallels to the late 1950's. jack kennedy, it is forgotten what a radical thing it was when john kennedy ran for president. he was a catholic. there were people fearful that the pope was going to run the united states. in the kind of terms that some of the debate about health care, remind us of today. kennedy was the youngest man running for president. he succeeded eisenhower, the

oldest man until then living in the white house. kennedy sort of embodied this enchantment with the new and the young. there were people who thought he was too young and inexperienced. he turned that around. he realized that at that time of great change, being young had its advantages. i think obama used the same idea. it's also what's going on that's larger. in the late 1950's there was a sense that the world or shrinking. if there was jet travel, rockets, icbm's that could be launched by the soviet union or the u.s., the sense that we were part of the world. today in a flash of a second things can change the way we lived. we are part of the world and the world is shrinking. there was a breakdown in the barriers between public and private, spectacle and spectator, that we now see

pushed to a high degree with things like you tube and twitter. practically becomes obliterated. so, i think there was this sort of enchantment with the late 1950's right now. tv's like madme shows like "mad" there are a lot of books that tell about the year everything changed. i did not planet. i think it's because we realize that we are right now on the verge of some new era of unknown opportunity and peril, as jack kennedy put it. there's this sense that we are on the verge of something that we don't know where we are going. i think we can learn a lot about how to conduct ourselves and not conduct ourselves from what we went through in the late 1950's. host: our guest is fred kaplan. he spent 20 years as reporter

and writer for the boston globe. now a free-lance writer living in new york. jim is on the phone from california. live oak. caller: thank you for taking my call. good morning. you talked about a 50's. let's talk about the seven depots in. i worked through texas and new orleans. i read in a magazine in the 70 -- in 1973 that gasoline would be over $3 a gallon. like where it is today. they projected that in 1973. guest: it has gone up to $5. i don't understand the question, really. my book goes a lot more with the price of gas. it's true that one thing that happened in 1959 was there an international auto show where

the names toyota and datsun or introduced to the american public. and a new bright ford vehicles a shutdown because nobody wanted. it was the year international trade began in cars. it was the year when detroit, what we saw over the next two decades of how detroit no longer say to the marketplace unilaterally, that occurred then. >> an excerpt that you wrote about that ford vehicle in your words on the screen. caller: i was born in 1959. i have not read your book. guest: the book could be your birthday present it caller: i'm conservative. when i look back on that generation, a whole hippie thing, i don't see anything that

came out of it that was good for america, but maybe a few children's books. i saw a generation that's all police officers in the street trying to maintain law and order from a bunch of kids that were too scared to go to war. i saw them call people jesus freak just because they wanted to get on their knees and pray. guest: you're talking about 1959. i don't think so. in the last chapter i went into a lot of the trends that started in the late 1950's did take a dark direction. when you open up the barriers to more free society, freedom is a double-edged sword. you can go lot of different ways. there was a lot of progress in free-speech. at the same time, this opens a door to pornography, which no

one could defend. there were a lot of new examples of free expression, but as you say, some of this expression was corrosive to society. so i think -- i don't know if, for example, you have a wife or daughter in the workplace, but i don't think that could have come about to the degree that it did without things like the birth control pill, which allowed women to enter into the workplace without being saddled with a family ride when they got out of college. i don't know if you live an integrated neighborhood, but i don't think that would have happened without certain court case that happened in 1959. so, you are right, when we open up a society, you open it up to a lot of things. that is one of the lessons i hope that comes from my book. that some of these freedoms were exploited and taken down rather degenerate path.

host: this viewer says your book covered issues around the beginning of the vietnam war. guest: the vietnam war started in 1959. the first two american soldiers were killed in vietnam fell in july 1959. that was the year ho and the north vietnamese communist party decided exclusively to wage a military campaign to unify the north and the south and declare that the u.s. was now the colonial occupiers and the enemy just as they considered the french to be before. that was another incident where it seems things converged at the end of this decade. host: you said the press initially called an asset astronaut's space men -- called the astronauts spaceman. guest: there were the argonauts.

it is so mundane now. back then it was an adventure. people are excited about it. when people to about 1959 when we landed on the moon. nasa made an agency that had equal access to military spare parts and electronics. iand mercury. it was the year when the first rocket breaks free of the earth's gravitational pull. then it starts to revolve around the sun like a planet. that was a russian vehicle that in january 2, time magazine declared that this was a turning point in the multi-billion year history of the solar system. they used to write more hyperbolically than they do now.

the planet had evolved to the point where you could break free of the planet's gravitational pull. that is what the book is about. if it's about people land movement and technology converging from all walks of life to break free of the gravitational pull in which they're locked before. host: in the eyes of the world, the kerstin space means first. the second baseman and second in everything. that memo came from home? guest: it came from vice president lyndon johnson to president kennedy. when kennedy came to office, he was not that thrilled with outer space. he even thought about eliminating nasa. but then the russians up their man into space. a lot of the developments in technology and culture and elsewhere that we have in that era was sparked by the cold war

competition between the u.s. and the soviet union. once that began, it became a test of our world leadership. when kennedy talked about the new frontier, he had -- we had run out of the old frontier, the talking about outer space. so that is really how the graeme as we know it began. >host: the name of the book is "the year everything changed." caller: good morning. the military-industrial complex started i believe, wanted to expand. it began to expand. it learned it could do the small, contained war is over a long time. it started doing that. we had statesman as presidents

that could contain it all away until jimmy carter. that is when the big complex got involved and figured it could manipulate the environment into wanting a stronger military. what they did is they went after him at his worst time and destroyed a statement. then we got ronald reagan, who started running everything to big business. it was an interesting year, 1959. guest: i think you are personifying the military- industrial complex. it was in 1950's duwaik eisenhower opposed estero address where he warned of the ravages -- actually, he called it is it an original draft, the military and pre directional complex, because he recognized the role that the contractors played in getting political support for some of their weapons systems. he, was a five-star general in

the second world war, so he knew where he was coming from the role has gone up and down a lot of ways. without regard, i don't see 1959 as a particularly bold turning point. host: why were the french smart enough to leave vietnam? guest: they got kicked out. a battle in 1954, they had 10,000 soldiers surrounded by 50,000 vietnamese. they're called vietcongs. they asked the u.s. military commanders 40 dubbin of tactical nuclear weapons and eisenhower turned them down. he did not regard vietnam and that important. there were not very smart at all. they got more people killed in vietnam than we did. host: we have bill on the line. caller: hello.

i have a thoughtful understanding. i was born in 1985. whenever you want to call us is not important. a lot of the baby boomers are feeling spawned at that time. we went into the legal war with iraq in the same situation as vietnam. the idea of the democrats and republicans, that's the same. the baby boomers, i thank you a lot for what you've done for this country, but you guys need to realize your time is pretty much over. it is the 21st century. a lot of the stuff, all the blue dogs are democrats, dealing with health care. guest:point taken. host: you talk about dancing in

the streets and motown. >> in 1959 berry gordy bought the house called hitsville, usa. "money, that's what i want" and its own. and the beatles were crossed the atlantic. they heard that song and other motown songs and changed their orientations from a buddy holly sound to this black rhythm-and- blues-infused jazz-and used, sensuous and even sexual music. the rest is history. it sort of provided the soundtrack for the much more urban, central decade of the 60's. poulter does strange things. i think it probably it lubricated -- poultculture does strange things. it lubricated the culture. it's hard to be racist when you

are dancing to motown music. >berry gordy lived upstairs and put the business offices on the d ground floor. his resistance were detroit jazz musicians. they called themselves the funk brothers. they stayed in the studio all day. then they went after hours to the jazz clubs working out riffs and improvisations. that is what you hear in the music that started to change pop culture the following year. host: did the demise of the fourth etzel-- ford etzel preclude what has happened today? >> the baht it would be a big demand for this car. turns out there was this postwar boom from 1958 when the recession began. this was going to be a more

premium car. it was a bigger car. but people did not have the money. there were looking for smaller cars. if this is the year companies began to build compact cars. foreign cars started to have appeal. it was the first indication that detroit could not determine the market. no more than the u.s. government could determine what was going on in the rest of the world. you can look back to that date as foretelling a lot of things about the limits of superpower and supermarket power. host: sue is on line. caller: your book sounds fascinating garret. second city in chicago, the first pianist was named fred kaplan. depaul university. i was born in 1935.

you had to be 21 back then. i voted for kennedy because the prejudice against catholics was so great at the time, i felt like fighting that. it had nothing to do with him being good-looking. i felt much differently later. my point is that was so powerful back then. i've bought a toyota in 1977. i did not know what it was. i had no money and it was the cheapest. decarr never stopped. i've been buying japanese cars ever since. -- that toyota never stopped running. i later found it volkswagen bugs were good as well. host:who is jack?

guest: this is the man who invented the integrated circuit, the microchip. he got a job at texas instruments in the spring of 1958. that summer everybody went on as a vacation. he had not been in the company long enough to take a vacation, so he was in the lab by himself. you had to -- if you wanted faster electrical functions or more of them, you had to get another layer of transistors and capacitors and wire them together. this was getting increasingly elaborate, becoming ridiculous the expensive. you cannot do it anymore. so he came up with the idea of putting all these functions on one conducted slab. that became the microchip. practically everything in the studio and everything in your living room runs on a microchip.

everything from your digital display on your alarm clock, your microwave oven, your hand- held calculator, a high- definition tv, satellite communications. nothing really could have happened -- laptop computers -- in 1958 you would have had to have computers the size of this room to do what this laptop can do. it still would not have been able to do everything. this one man in that year, it was introduced, the radio engineers trade show in spring 1959. not everybody saw the implications. there was a lot of invention going on parrot of all the things in this book, that and the birth control bill are probably the two things that created the modern world most indelibly and universally. host: are there any topics you wanted to get into the book, but had to be left out? guest: yes.

i regret some of them. i have figured out how i worked it in subsequently. i wanted to get "twilight zone" from 1959. i did not get in "to the barbie doll -- i did not fit in the barbie doll. >caller: you seem like a stinker. i hope you can tell me think through the situation as regards to health care. -- you seem like eight thinka t. we have so many people resistant to a situation where everybody would be included into health care plan in the united states. it seems like the middle-class and upper-middle-class have insurance and jobs, but they don't want other people to come into the mix because it would take away their pre-eminence in society by letting other people

into a situation where we could be on more equal basis. help me think through this. maybe i have the wrong idea. guest: people are always resistant to change. not everybody was in favor of the changes in 1959. kennedy represented the new, young, vibrant thing. but he barely got 50% of the vote. one thing that is different now, of course, is that you have all these cable channels. in the mid 1950's, on behalf of american households had a television. by the end of the decade there were just starting to build these little pocket transistor radios that costs less than $20. so there was just the beginning of the formation of the national culture, a culture where everybody was watching and listening to the same things. >> darrell issa the remote control came back in 1959.

guest: that is anoth-- darrell - control came back in 1959. guest: that is another thing i could not put in the book permit caller: in 1959 in san diego went the airplane flew to miami in 3.5 hours and returned the same day, the first continental jet flights. about that time, howard hughes was the president of twa. he tied up all those plans without paying any money for them. then the big shift came from the powerful senator and the state of washington and he got the money there for going to become the predominant producer jet travel aircraft -- for boing to

become the predominant produce separatr. guest: i don't think -- it was a huge thing. it was extremely expensive. tickets were sold out through the summer, starting in january. i don't think it was as tied up as you are suggesting. host: will is online from columbia, tenn. on the democratic line. caller: good morning to both of you gentlemen. i appreciate c-span. we have this freedom of speech in america that allows us to convey some very valuable information to one another. i thank you for coming on board with us, mr. kaplan, and telling us what you thought was the most important thing dealing with

change in 1959. i think that you have opened up a lot of areas for future visions. what i would like to ask you, we have seen a lot of changes in the, what we call the improved black-white relations over the years. of course, now to president obama becoming president. i graduated in 1966. i got started teaching at city schools in franklin, tenn. during the 1970's parikh i sought equal rights. that improved over the years. then i started celebrating black history month in the classrooms. i started realizing that we did

a great justice for the black people. i think they were right, because it was not justice going on in the 1960's. martin luther king brought that out. that was right. today i think there's discrimination. we have black history month and yet i'm wondering somewhere down the line with the influx of the hispanics, that we will have maybe an american hispanic month guest:: what would be wrong with that? caller: we have all these other nationalities coming in as well. there's a lot of immigration going on right now. guest: the u.s. civil rights commission released its first report, the commission had only been started two years earlier, which detailed in a 650 page report based on hearings conducted throughout the south and other parts of the country,

detailing the level of racial discrimination in housing, schools, and in voting booths. the report has long been forgotten, even industries of the time, the report led to a lot of the court cases that were filed in 1960's, overturning segregation law. it took awhile for all of it to play out. in 1954 there was brown vs. board of education, but ended the segregation in schools, but nothing happened until that report and then the activis ism and martin luther king and of medgar evers in the late 1950's. the beginnings of change occurred to them. some of the results and the implications did not play out for several more years, though. host:"1959"is the name of the

book. one person writes -- another rights -- jacob is joining us from rewritten, west virginia. caller:hi good:. -- good morning. you said the birth control opened up opportunities for women. i wanted to talk about something that is rarely mention about the birth control pill. host: there was a lot of static. we have to move on. caller: good morning.

thank you, dr. kaplan, and steve. i was born in 1954. 1959 seems like the first year i remembered being alive. as a child. it seems like it was such an idyllic time. things were simpler. i would walk down the streets. i remember the transistor radio. all the things you spoke about. i was just wondering, was that the time before things get complicated or did it just seem like such an ideal time because i was a child? guest: everybody has undulate memories from their childhood. that was before we lost our innocence. the end of the 1950's was not a terribly innocent time. there were fears of nuclear war. it was falsely believed that the soviets were way ahead of us in

missiles. people were building fallout shelters in their backyards. there were discussions between theologians and tabloid magazines about whether it with ethically permissible to shoot your neighbor if he tried to break into your fallout shelter during a nuclear war. if you were a black person or woman, if you were jewish, an outsider from new york city and a few other cities, these were not terribly innocent times for you. we have a tendency to romanticize our childhoods, but the fact is, in its own way, it was as dramatic and full of the joint and terror as any other time host:. host: fidel castro in new york at the boxes to eating an ice- cream cone.

guest: he took power in 1959. he was greeted as a savior. they thought, here's this revolutionary, and otmaybe he cn break free of the deadlock of the cold war. he came to the u.s. in march of 1959 and was greeted as a hero. he spoke to 30,000 people in central park. he was fluent in english. if he spoke to people on the streets but, he toured the washington mall. people would come up to him and say hello. this was a few months before the true colors of him or of his associates were revealed. now we decided anything that would prevent american corporations from doing business the way they were before was going to be fought. the romance did not last long. but what that romance indicated

-- and in many ways it was wishful spending -- was this desire to break free of that deadlock. the cold war. that would not end for another few decades, otherwi. >> i am a listener and watcher of the show every day. i really enjoy it. it's been one of the better segments i've seen in a long time. i'm 64 years old. i lived through that time. i know what happened. for me, the title of your book is "of the year everything changed. for me it was 1957. i was always interested in astronomy and always looking at the stars. i noticed in 1957 after sputnik was put up, other people were looking up as well. i was looking up to the sky and looking to sputnik and others were doing the same thing. it was a great time.

a lot of members are coming back. i'm enjoying this. that was my comment. guest: 1959 was the year we began to go out there in space as well. launching various satellites that met with the russians had done and then exceeding them. the astronaut program. there was something about looking up in space, there was an article in nature magazine called googled searching for extraterrestrial intelligence," that spoke of how you would contact them and what kind of frequency the radio astronomers should be listening to. if that is what started the programs searching for extra terrestrial intelligence. it still has not found anything. it's certainly enlivened the imagination of all of us. host: good morning, tim.

caller: this segment does not make sense. there's always a few on the show every day even though you don't make up -- always-- host: miles davis outside an american nightclub. the impact he had on music. guest: miles davis came out with an album in august 1959. six years ago exactly this monday called "kind of blewue.' the most popular jazz album to this day. he was standing outside the birth plant club meeting celebrities every night pit he escorted a white woman to a taxi cab and was smoking a cigarette. somebody like a cop told him along.

he said i work here and pointed to his name on the marquee. a plainclothes detective standing 10 feet away saw something was happening and came over and asked him over the head with a billy club. he got five stitches to bond. then they carted him away to jail. picard miles davis away in handcuffs for creating a disturbance. -- the baht miles davis to jail. the "the new york times" article to the point of view of the police. miles davis in my book introduces the chapter on race relations in the late 1950's. these were some of the most famous people in america, or least an arts, a man at the top of his game, rich and famous, movie stars coming to see him, yet not in the deep south, but in midtown manhattan, outside the club was playing, to a couple of cops he was just

another uppity black guy, and uppity negro. host: doc from miami on the line. caller: mr. kaplan, i know where i am coming from, so be nice. in the late 1959 and early 1960's or the latter part 1969 of 1959, jews and blacks were prospering, but the southern white male interfered and went with the eisenhower mentality, which was basically a military type mentality it. host: your question?

caller: you mentioned 1959, but in 1957, leading into 1959. what i'm saying is you are on target, but why would there be a problem with race relations between the jews and blacks during that era? guest: there wasn't. a lot of martin luther king's top advisers, especially legal advisers, or jewish. there was a natural alliance between northern and and southern blacks -- between northern jews and southern blacks. many of them came to an unite with blacks on the freedom rides. at that time, i am not

suggesting that was a problem. 8 maybe you are responding to an earlier caller that seem to have problems with so many jews on television. host: you used the word "creative energy" that term created in 1959. guest: i think in 1959 there was this enchantment with the new, the idea we could be blasting off the planet, that we would cross new horizons. i think that created an appetite for new forms of expression. i'm not saying miles davis looked at a rocket going up and said, i'm going to play jazz in a new way. what i'm suggesting is when he started to play jazz in a different way, there were a lot more people that might have been the case a few years earlier it who were now receptive to it. when obscenity laws were

overthrown, you could start reading books that you could not have read a few years before. i'm not talking about pornography. on talking about "lady saturday lover. 2 million people bought a copy in 1959. it was forbidden fruit that had now fallen from the vine. it was easily available. this pent-up market for new things, this desire to experiment, to be more receptive to experimental expression, then galvanized this generation of artists to go even further. so, that is the kind of creative energy i'm talking about. host: "the year everything changed, 1959." he also writes for slate.com. fred kaplan, thank you for being here. >> thank you. host: raven brooks is the

executive director of netroots nation. guest: we have seven panels and 20 training sessions. we've heard from bill clinton last night. we will hear from governor howard dean. and senator specter. we have a bunch of on-line activists that are connecting with us and helping us plan for how we're going to get their priorities host: passed in: this passed. host: this began as the yearlykos convention. caller: we decided we wanted to have a chance to meet the persons we had been talking with on line. it became something a lot bigger. we had a big convention with a